Model makes miracle recovery after terrifying hotel fall

By Frances Leate

A MODEL who fell 80ft from her Spanish hotel balcony has learnt to walk again.

Chantelle Serginson, 25, from Middlesbrough, suffered two brain haemorrhages, a broken jaw and multiple fractures to her legs when she fell from the top of the six storey Hotel Marina Barracuda, in Mallorca, last May.

Doctors told her she was lucky to be alive and wasn’t expected to walk again after the terrifying fall.

But the young holidaymaker has stunned health professionals by getting back on her feet just four-and-a-half months after the horrific accident that could have killed her.

She said: “I have gone from a wheelchair to a walking frame to crutches.

“The first time my foot touched the floor I was sobbing. I can now walk to the shops but sometimes I need a piggyback back.”

The model, who hoped to become a dancer, added: “I can’t overdo it and I am still on medication but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The accident left her with metal poles and pins in her legs and hips and metal plates in her jaw.

She had fallen while losing her balance trying to throw a spider from her suitcase.
She is now awaiting a further op to remove a metal pole from her left leg, and some time in the future expects to have a knee replacement.

Her injuries mean her dreams of being a professional dancer have had to be shelved but she plans on training to be a support worker to help people who can’t walk.